An open letter from Solve Canada
You did this. I just wrote the code.
Hey there,
Four months ago I was one person with a pothole I kept swerving around and a form the city made too hard to fill. So I built the tool I wished existed, and I did not know if anyone would use it.
Then you showed up.
Nearly 1,000 reports later, across six Ontario cities, something has changed. Streets got fixed. Some reports get a response from the city the same day they are filed, which almost never happened when we were all shouting into web forms alone. Millions of pieces of public infrastructure now live on public maps anyone can explore, fly over the city in Pulse mode, and every report you file arrives at the city with everything it needs to act.
You are one of the founding supporters of this. Not a user, a founder. A reporting platform with no reporters is an empty map, and you are the reason a city employee opened an email about your street, the reason a fix crew showed up, the reason five more cities came online after the first one. I built the pipes, but the water is yours.
Here is what I have learned in four months: cities move when residents are visible together. One report is a complaint. Nearly 1,000 reports on a public map is a record nobody can ignore.
If you want this to keep growing, here is what actually helps:
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1
Tell one neighbour. A shared link or a mention over the fence is how every single city on the platform started.
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2
When you report something, share it. Post the report link and tag your city. A public report is twice as hard to ignore as a private one.
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3
Bring someone new in. Every person you add makes the record harder to ignore. That is how a page of reports becomes something a city has to answer to.
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4
Grab a card and post it. Below are shareable cards built from the numbers you made real. Pick one, add your city, and put it on your feed. A number people can see travels further than one they cannot.
Bring your city
Every city on this platform started the same way: one resident asked. They did not build anything or convince a council. They raised a hand, I looked at what their city publishes as open data, and the door got built from there. You can be that person for your city.
Tell me which city you have in mind and I will tell you honestly what it would take.
On July 14 I stood on a stage at Civic Tech Toronto and told this whole story out loud, in a room that filled up more than I expected. More than one person came up afterward and asked why a city or a province has not built this already. I still do not have a clean answer to that. What I have is six cities live, four months of proof, and everyone in this letter who made both of those true.
Thank you for trusting a stranger's website with your street.
Founder, Solve Canada
P.S. If you do only one thing, tell one neighbour. That is how every city here started.
Four months, in numbers you can share
These are the numbers you made real. Grab one, add your city, and post it.
solvecanada.ca
One public map.
Reach me
Question, story, or a city that needs this? Send it straight through and I'll read it myself.
